A federal judge in a Chicago terrorism case will let the defense view government applications submitted to a foreign intelligence court seeking permission to conduct secret surveillance, in what the judge says is a first.

Wednesday’s pretrial ruling is in Adel Daoud’s case. He’s denied seeking to detonate a bomb in Chicago in 2012.

The defense has pressed for details on how investigators employed the kind of phone and Internet spying revealed by ex-government contractor Edward Snowden.